Surrender is the greatest gamble. Surrender means putting the mind aside completely. Surrender means going mad. I say surrender means going mad, because all those who live in their logic and in their minds will think you have gone mad. To me it is not madness. To me madness, this type of madness, is the only courageous way of life. To me this madness is the deepest jump. To me this madness is all that a man is called to be. But to the logicians, your trust will look like madness.

 

This is one of the phenomena that has to be penetrated very deeply. All the great religions are born around some madman. A Jesus is a madman, perfectly insane. A Buddha is a madman. But the people who gather around are not all mad. Many come who are not peakers, who are intellectuals. They are attracted to Jesus and to Buddha also. The very being of Buddha is so magnetic now, filled with so much infinite energy, that they are attracted. Their mind reasons that something has been attained by this man, but they are not peakers; they are non-peakers.

 

Intellectually they become attracted. The very phenomenon of a Buddha and his being becomes a logical argument to them. They listen to Buddha, they rationalize his sayings, they create metaphysics around them, then a religion is born. At the base is a madman, but in the structure are logicians. They are the contradictory people, absolutely contradictory, opposite to Buddha. They create the organization. They create Buddhism and the philosophies.

 

Jesus is a madman, Saint Paul is not. He is a perfect logician. The church is created by Saint Paul, not by Jesus. The whole of Christianity is created by Saint Paul, not by Jesus. And this is one of the dangerous things that has been happening. There is no way to prevent it. It is in the nature of things.

 

If Jesus is born now, the church will deny him immediately. The church will not allow any madmen. Eckhart or Boehme, the church will deny them — they are madmen. They will be expelled from the organization. They will not be allowed because they can prove destructive. They say such things, that if people listen to them and believe in them, they will destroy the whole structure, the whole organization.

 

Religion is born, at the base, madman, and then taken over by the logicians who are the opposite. They create all organizations. Peakers give birth, and then the child is adopted by the non-peakers. So every religion at its birth source is beautiful — but never again. Then it becomes ugly. Then, really, it becomes anti-religious.

 

Whatsoever I am saying to you, you are fortunate — you are at the source. That’s why I say you are fortunate. And it happens only after thousands of years that you are near the source.

 

It will not be so again! Even with my ideas, it will not be so again. Sooner or later, the logician will enter, the non-peaker will come. They are bound to come — they are already on the way. They will systematize everything, they will destroy everything. And then the opportunity will be missed. Then it will be a dead thing. Right now, it is alive, and you are near the source. That’s why I say you are fortunate.

 

In your mind also, both the possibilities are there — the peaker and the non-peaker. If you allow your peaker, then you will surrender. If you allow your non-peaker, then you will listen to me, argue about it, rationalize about it, philosophize about it. Then either you are convinced by me, or not convinced by me. If you are convinced, you hang around me. If you are not convinced, you leave. But in both the cases you miss. Whether you hang around me or leave is irrelevant.

 

If you are trying to be convinced intellectually, you have missed. This can be done when I am dead. Right now, something else is possible and can be done — and that is: allow your peaker, allow your trusting soul to adventure. Don’t make it a reasoning within you. Make it a jump.

 

The source happens rarely, and very few people can take the advantage. This has always been so; this will be always so. Around Jesus there were only a few people; around Buddha only a few people. And then for centuries they weep and they cry.

 

When Buddha was dying, many were crying and weeping. Only a few were blissfully sitting around — only a few. Those were the peakers who were sitting blissfully; they had become one with the source. They had become one with the Buddha; the disciple and the master had disappeared long before and now there is going to be no death.

 

Only a few — a Mahakashyap, a Sariputta, were sitting silently, enjoying. Even Ananda, Buddha’s chief disciple, was crying and weeping. Buddha opened his eyes and said: Why are you weeping, Ananda?

 

Ananda said: For many, many years I was with you and I missed the chance, and now you will be no more. What will happen to me now? You were here and I couldn’t attain. Now you will not be here. What will happen to me? Now how many lives will I have to wander?

 

Even if the source is available to you, you can miss. You can miss by no-surrendering. Surrender, and the remaining I will do. Then I will be smiling continuously.

 

- Osho, “”My Way: The Way of the White Clouds, #9, Q1”